Justice Clark of Antwerp falls to Paulding’s Aaron Mock at the Paulding Co. Wrestling meet at PHS. More pictures at westbendnews.net
Both the junior high and high school wrestlers wrapped up their regular season schedules on Thursday, February 12, 2015 at the annual Paulding County Tri Match. This year’s edition was held at Paulding High School. Although the Archers did not win this year’s team title, they had some outstanding individual performances yet again. 8th grader Tyler Bauer was 2-0 on the day with 2 pins at 104 pounds. Bauer ends his 8th grade season with a cumulative record of 22-2 with 18 wins coming by pin. He also won individual titles this season at the Bryan Invitational, Antwerp Invitational, Pilot Invitational, and the GMC Tournament. Tyler also made history in his junior high career by becoming Antwerp’s First ever 2-time GMC champion. Also going 2-0 on the day was 8th grader Aidan McAlexander. Not only was Aidan undefeated on the day, but he was also undefeated for the entire year! His season record this year was 24-0 with 17 wins coming by pin. This marks the 1st time any Antwerp wrestler has gone undefeated for an entire season. On his way to an undefeated season, McAlexander captured six individual tournament titles. He claimed 1st at the Wayne Trace Invitational, Bryan Invitational, Antwerp Invitational, Pilot Invitational, Wauseon Invitational, and the GMC Tournament. Both of these young men have had outstanding junior high careers and we wish them the best as they prepare for the state tournament and their high school careers coming next season.
On the high school side, all 4 of Antwerp’s high school wrestlers were put to the test against both Wayne Trace and Paulding. Sophomore Logan Shaner was 1-1 on the day with 1 pin at 138 pounds. Justice Clark had a very tough day as he faced 2 returning district qualifiers, dropping both of those matches. However, 2 of Antwerp’s seniors were able to close out their final regular season dual meet on a very high note. Seniors Jarett Bute (220 pounds) and Jordan Laker (285 pounds) were both undefeated on Thursday by registering records of 2-0 and 1 pin each.
Let’s hope these successful regular seasons will propel all Archer wrestlers to greatness as they prepare for Sectionals.
